Gold prices gain 1.2 percent this week

Oil prices dropped a bit on Friday but West Texas Intermediate crude was up more than 5 percent over the week. Despite the recent price increases, there are indications that OPEC will cut production further when it meets later this month in Nigeria. Brent crude January contracts were 27 cents lower by late afternoon in London to $63.62 per barrel, while WTI was down 45 cents to $62.68 in early afternoon trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Gold hit its highest price in three months on Friday as the US dollar continued to weaken when it rose to $648.60 per troy ounce during the day, but by late afternoon in London it was $1 lower than Thursday’s close as it traded around the $646/$647 per troy ounce level. That left gold still 1.2 percent higher for the week. Also late in the day in London, silver was trading at around $13.94/$14.01 per troy ounce and had added 4 percent during the week.

Base metals were mostly lower over the week. Copper dropped $90 on Friday and was 2.5 percent lower for the week to $6,990 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange. Zinc was also lower, falling $70 this week to trade at $4,400 per tonne. Nickel bucked the trend by reaching another record high price on Friday when it traded at $34,400 per tonne. Nickel has added 150 percent since the beginning of the year as stockpiles continue to decline and the development of new sources of the metal run into delays and higher than expected costs.

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